Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, What We Know
Everything we've learned about Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
UPDATE (July 24, 2008): Well, we've had info coming in fairly consistently for a good two months now, and so much that I can't possibly have it all listed (although it's not even really necessary, as most of the info can now be found pretty easily) this was nice for when information was scarce, but now, such is not the case. I can't possibly keep this consistently updated anymore.
Rare, as we all know, is a very secretive company. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, as we also know, is one of their most secretive titles so far. They've given information, but slowly and sparsely. For this reason, I decided to create a listing of every piece of information that has been revealed. It is split into sections, each relating to a major part of the game...Characters, Story, Gameplay, Levels, Music & Sound, and Miscellaneous. With the introduction out of the way, I'm pleased to bring all of you...Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, What We Know.
Characters
Rare has confirmed a number of characters to appear in the game so far. Other than the duo themselves, these include the following...
Hailing from the first game: The evil witch Gruntilda, Bottles the move-tutoring mole, shaman Mumbo Jumbo, disturbing living toilet Loggo, Clanker the mechincal shark-looking trash compactor, Tiptup the talentless turtle and Captain Blubber, the sobbin' 'n' burpin' pirate hippo.
Hailing from the sequel: Jinjo king Jingaling, female shaman Humba Wumba, camp bar tender Jolly Roger, strange wobbly inflatable thing Mr. Patch, Weldar the visually-impaired welding torch and Mr. Fit, the health freak. Bottles' wife and kids and his military-focused brother Jamjars are not returning, as confirmed by Scribes. There are a few confirmed new characters, including an unknown character assisting Gruntilda, Trophy Thomas (a character based on a Rare employee named James Thomas, known in internet communities as BIGsheep.), pig-cop Pikelet, and the unknown Piddles. As seen in the X06 Trailer with Banjo and Kazooie, and Rare's and recent screenshots, each returning character is being redesigned for the new game, these redesigns will make sense once we, "see the game and what it's about." Mumbo Jumbo has a new role in Mumbo's Nuts, apparently as a mechanic. Humba Wumba will also have an unknown new role and apparently in the time between Tooie and this game has learned new skills. Gruntilda will return to her rhyming speech after a fairly long break from it in Banjo-Tooie.
Story
Following tradition, B-K3 continues where Tooie left off, and in real-time. The story goes that Gruntilda comes to Spiral Mountain in an attempt to have it redeveloped into tower blocks and shopping malls, causing yet another conflict between her and our heroes. Lord of Games, who claims to have had a hand in every video game ever made, becomes sick of the constant feuding, and engineers a large-scale showdown as he brings them to Showdown Town, his creative HQ. The winner of the showdown gets the deeds to Spiral Mountain...the loser spends eternity toiling away in LOG's video game factory. Also, at some point, Grunty robs Banjo and Kazooie of their moves from the first two games.
Gameplay
The gameplay consists of building custom vehicles to get around and complete various tasks. Despite this change in focus, there are still typical platforming parts. The 130 Jiggies are still used to progress but are obtained differently. The game will also have more freedom than either of the previous games, likely due to the customization possibilities. A somewhat disappointing note to report is that Banjo and Kazooie will not have many of their abilities from the first two Banjo games. Jinjos are back, but their role secret currently. Notes serve now as currency. Multiplayer is planned, but no first-person-shooting Squawkmatches seen in Banjo-Tooie, it appears to be battles using the vehicles you create (or default ones in the game from the start). Old moves will apparently be worked into the new vehicles, such as a Grenade Egg Gun being available.
Levels
To start, Spiral Mountain is returning and it has been implied that it will be back to its "happy" status, rather than the gloomy, destroyed mess from Banjo-Tooie, and will be used in a different manner from previous titles. Oddly, of the returning Spiral Mountain, Rare also said, " "As we couldn't think up a clever new way to start the game we're going to be using Spiral Mountain yet again. We also thought we could get away with using the old N64 background but unfortunately someone noticed. We have however managed to come up with some clever ways of reusing this background. So if you liked Spiral Mountain it's all good. But if you didn't you may be a little unhappy. Actually, if you disliked Spiral Mountain and don't like cacti you could even be angry." The Isle O' Hags, however, will not be able to be revisited. One of the game's levels will be "one that features a volcano with double entendres." Rare also confirmed a trippy Cloud Cuckooland-esque level featuring "inflatable sheep and polystyrene buildings." The game's levels will not be much larger as compared to Tooie, but will still be interesting to explore while not being overly complex. Two new levels were revealed on May 11 & 12, the first being Nutty Acres, a level that features screens showing a broadcast of the sky outside, giant cogs, and a generally artificial feel. The next is Showdown Town, the hub world. Rare claims this hub world to be 16 times larger than any they've created previously. There will be a total of six levels, each with six acts, which contain carrying amounts of objectives. Another new level appears to be BanjoLand, which melds major landmarks from BK and BT levels into one huge mesh. Another level is one based around sports...aptly named, World of Sports.
Music & Sound
Grant Kirkhope, who composed the music for the first two Banjo titles, is once again composing. In addition, Robin Beanland (Killer Instinct, Conker's Bad Fur Day), David Clynick (Perfect Dark, Perfect Dark Zero) and Steve Burk (Kameo) are helping Mr. Kirkhope with the music. The music is mostly orchestrated. The characters will retain their classic mumbly chatter noises, rather than having full voice-acting.
Miscellaneous
As of December 30, 2007, the game is more than halfway done and as of February 12, 2008, is on-track for a November 2008 release, although this, as ever, is subject to change. It will remain rated E for Everyone, but will also retain its subtle risque humor. There are no plans for a PC release at the moment, and there likely may not be one. While new elements will be introduced, Gregg stresses, "this remains a Banjo game." Stop 'n' Swop may or may not be revealed in the new game. Rare loves to be vague!
And there you are. Hopefully as time goes on I will be able to update this with new and exciting information. Until then, ciao fellow Banjo fans!
Sources
http://www.rareware.com/extras/scrib...t06/index.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/8dec06/index.html
http://au.gamespot.com/news/6174823.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/30aug07/index.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/20dec07/index.html
http://www.rarewitchproject.com/foru...&postcount=108
http://www.rarewitchproject.com/foru...&postcount=183
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/...celed-and-more
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/ba...27172414578031
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/13feb08/index.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/company/news.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/pantsboards.html
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=128851
http://www.dkvine.com/interactive/fo...dpost&p=162214
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/9may08/index.html
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...982/img008.jpg
http://gamespotting.net/wp-content/u...-1900x1200.jpg
UPDATE (July 24, 2008): Well, we've had info coming in fairly consistently for a good two months now, and so much that I can't possibly have it all listed (although it's not even really necessary, as most of the info can now be found pretty easily) this was nice for when information was scarce, but now, such is not the case. I can't possibly keep this consistently updated anymore.
Rare, as we all know, is a very secretive company. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, as we also know, is one of their most secretive titles so far. They've given information, but slowly and sparsely. For this reason, I decided to create a listing of every piece of information that has been revealed. It is split into sections, each relating to a major part of the game...Characters, Story, Gameplay, Levels, Music & Sound, and Miscellaneous. With the introduction out of the way, I'm pleased to bring all of you...Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, What We Know.
Characters
Rare has confirmed a number of characters to appear in the game so far. Other than the duo themselves, these include the following...
Hailing from the first game: The evil witch Gruntilda, Bottles the move-tutoring mole, shaman Mumbo Jumbo, disturbing living toilet Loggo, Clanker the mechincal shark-looking trash compactor, Tiptup the talentless turtle and Captain Blubber, the sobbin' 'n' burpin' pirate hippo.
Hailing from the sequel: Jinjo king Jingaling, female shaman Humba Wumba, camp bar tender Jolly Roger, strange wobbly inflatable thing Mr. Patch, Weldar the visually-impaired welding torch and Mr. Fit, the health freak. Bottles' wife and kids and his military-focused brother Jamjars are not returning, as confirmed by Scribes. There are a few confirmed new characters, including an unknown character assisting Gruntilda, Trophy Thomas (a character based on a Rare employee named James Thomas, known in internet communities as BIGsheep.), pig-cop Pikelet, and the unknown Piddles. As seen in the X06 Trailer with Banjo and Kazooie, and Rare's and recent screenshots, each returning character is being redesigned for the new game, these redesigns will make sense once we, "see the game and what it's about." Mumbo Jumbo has a new role in Mumbo's Nuts, apparently as a mechanic. Humba Wumba will also have an unknown new role and apparently in the time between Tooie and this game has learned new skills. Gruntilda will return to her rhyming speech after a fairly long break from it in Banjo-Tooie.
Story
Following tradition, B-K3 continues where Tooie left off, and in real-time. The story goes that Gruntilda comes to Spiral Mountain in an attempt to have it redeveloped into tower blocks and shopping malls, causing yet another conflict between her and our heroes. Lord of Games, who claims to have had a hand in every video game ever made, becomes sick of the constant feuding, and engineers a large-scale showdown as he brings them to Showdown Town, his creative HQ. The winner of the showdown gets the deeds to Spiral Mountain...the loser spends eternity toiling away in LOG's video game factory. Also, at some point, Grunty robs Banjo and Kazooie of their moves from the first two games.
Gameplay
The gameplay consists of building custom vehicles to get around and complete various tasks. Despite this change in focus, there are still typical platforming parts. The 130 Jiggies are still used to progress but are obtained differently. The game will also have more freedom than either of the previous games, likely due to the customization possibilities. A somewhat disappointing note to report is that Banjo and Kazooie will not have many of their abilities from the first two Banjo games. Jinjos are back, but their role secret currently. Notes serve now as currency. Multiplayer is planned, but no first-person-shooting Squawkmatches seen in Banjo-Tooie, it appears to be battles using the vehicles you create (or default ones in the game from the start). Old moves will apparently be worked into the new vehicles, such as a Grenade Egg Gun being available.
Levels
To start, Spiral Mountain is returning and it has been implied that it will be back to its "happy" status, rather than the gloomy, destroyed mess from Banjo-Tooie, and will be used in a different manner from previous titles. Oddly, of the returning Spiral Mountain, Rare also said, " "As we couldn't think up a clever new way to start the game we're going to be using Spiral Mountain yet again. We also thought we could get away with using the old N64 background but unfortunately someone noticed. We have however managed to come up with some clever ways of reusing this background. So if you liked Spiral Mountain it's all good. But if you didn't you may be a little unhappy. Actually, if you disliked Spiral Mountain and don't like cacti you could even be angry." The Isle O' Hags, however, will not be able to be revisited. One of the game's levels will be "one that features a volcano with double entendres." Rare also confirmed a trippy Cloud Cuckooland-esque level featuring "inflatable sheep and polystyrene buildings." The game's levels will not be much larger as compared to Tooie, but will still be interesting to explore while not being overly complex. Two new levels were revealed on May 11 & 12, the first being Nutty Acres, a level that features screens showing a broadcast of the sky outside, giant cogs, and a generally artificial feel. The next is Showdown Town, the hub world. Rare claims this hub world to be 16 times larger than any they've created previously. There will be a total of six levels, each with six acts, which contain carrying amounts of objectives. Another new level appears to be BanjoLand, which melds major landmarks from BK and BT levels into one huge mesh. Another level is one based around sports...aptly named, World of Sports.
Music & Sound
Grant Kirkhope, who composed the music for the first two Banjo titles, is once again composing. In addition, Robin Beanland (Killer Instinct, Conker's Bad Fur Day), David Clynick (Perfect Dark, Perfect Dark Zero) and Steve Burk (Kameo) are helping Mr. Kirkhope with the music. The music is mostly orchestrated. The characters will retain their classic mumbly chatter noises, rather than having full voice-acting.
Miscellaneous
As of December 30, 2007, the game is more than halfway done and as of February 12, 2008, is on-track for a November 2008 release, although this, as ever, is subject to change. It will remain rated E for Everyone, but will also retain its subtle risque humor. There are no plans for a PC release at the moment, and there likely may not be one. While new elements will be introduced, Gregg stresses, "this remains a Banjo game." Stop 'n' Swop may or may not be revealed in the new game. Rare loves to be vague!
And there you are. Hopefully as time goes on I will be able to update this with new and exciting information. Until then, ciao fellow Banjo fans!
Sources
http://www.rareware.com/extras/scrib...t06/index.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/8dec06/index.html
http://au.gamespot.com/news/6174823.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/30aug07/index.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/20dec07/index.html
http://www.rarewitchproject.com/foru...&postcount=108
http://www.rarewitchproject.com/foru...&postcount=183
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/...celed-and-more
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/ba...27172414578031
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/13feb08/index.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/company/news.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/pantsboards.html
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=128851
http://www.dkvine.com/interactive/fo...dpost&p=162214
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/9may08/index.html
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...982/img008.jpg
http://gamespotting.net/wp-content/u...-1900x1200.jpg
